


New Year's Resolution

by peacesigngirl21



Series: Conversations between Friends [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Bede fight club continues, F/M, Fluff, Gloria complains about life while Hop has no life, Mutual Pining, Post-Game(s), nothing happens but I love it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:06:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27585839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacesigngirl21/pseuds/peacesigngirl21
Summary: Gloria slumped against the bathroom door and desperately wished she were anywhere else.In which Hop studies his life away but always makes time for Gloria's calls. Gloria has a lot to complain about.
Relationships: Hop/Yuuri | Gloria
Series: Conversations between Friends [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016394
Comments: 1
Kudos: 57





	New Year's Resolution

**Author's Note:**

> I should really be studying for finals right now. Thanks for reading!

Gloria slumped against the bathroom door and desperately wished she were anywhere else.

She had an awful headache, and the loud music pulsing through the walls wasn't helping. Luckily, she had a pair of earbuds in her clutch, nestled in alongside her League card and some money. 

Gloria plugged the earbuds into her Rotom phone and did what she always did when she wanted to avoid the world: call Hop.

Hop answered on the first ring. This was a sign that he was avoiding studying.

Gloria could tell from the bags under his eyes that Hop had had a long day, and the fact he was still in the research lab hinted that he had a long night ahead of him. It was almost midnight on New Year's Eve.

"The glasses are a nice look on you, nerd," she said by way of greeting. A better friend would tell him to go home and go to bed, but she really wanted to talk to him right now.

Hop scrunched up his nose, jostling the thick-framed glasses he used to read the older papers with notoriously small text. Professor Magnolia had also been hoarding them for decades, so the print was often faded. Hence, the unfashionable but undeniably adorable glasses. 

"Where are you?" Hop asked. He was trying to peek over her shoulder, but nothing was visible but the door. She was sitting on the floor against it.

"You don't recognize your own brother's flat?" she said. The door was adorned with a number of stickers, reminiscent of Leon's cape. Gloria guessed he collected them in more places than one.

"You're at Lee's right now?" Hop looked baffled. "Why?"

The current song's bass dropped at that moment, and a number of cheers went up outside. Gloria had to wait a few seconds for them to die down before responding.

"It's New Year's Eve," she said. "Leon's having a party for all the gym leaders. You and Sonia were probably invited, too, if I had to guess."

Hop took off the glasses to rub at his eyes. "Oh, I haven't been home in a few days, so that's possible." Gloria thought that he'd also clearly had no idea what day it was, but she didn't mention it. "Are you hiding in the bathroom?" Hop asked.

"Yeah. When I left, Kabu and Gordie were having a dance competition of some sort, which was unbearable to watch. And Opal spiked the punch."

"Oh, is that all?" At least Hop was laughing, which made her feel better about the whole situation.

"There is one other thing that's kind of bothering me," Gloria said. This was true, but she hadn't exactly planned on telling Hop about it.

"What's that?" he said. He looked up from the notes he had been taking to give her his full attention, which made Gloria more nervous than it really should.

"Someone told me that I reminded them of Bede."

She heard Hop's chair screech as he scooted it back suddenly. He leaned closer to the Rotom phone, close enough that she could actually see his eyes. They seemed to glow in the soft lamplight at his desk.

"Who said that?" he asked much more loudly than necessary. Gloria almost laughed at how intense he was.

"Bede," she said. Hop rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. "He said he thought that we have a lot in common."

"Glo, he was probably hitting on you," Hop said. "Though that is the worst possible thing anyone could say, ever." He tapped a pen against his cheek in thought.

"Still, I'm thinking maybe I should try to make a New Year's resolution out of it, maybe," Gloria said with a sigh. She really doubted Bede had been flirting with her--he probably just thought he was paying her a really good compliment. She could still remember the turmoil his words had caused Hop last year after their fateful battle, though, and she never wanted to hurt anyone so deliberately.

"Yeah?" Hop said. "And what's that?"

"To kill people with kindness." Gloria tried to make a smirking face, which made Hop fall back into his chair with laughter. She giggled with him for about a minute.

"Well, if anyone can pull that off, it's you," Hop said. "I haven't really thought about what my resolution should be. I guess to dedicate myself more to my studies."

It was Gloria's turn to roll her eyes. "Hop, you look like you haven't slept in days. And you already said you haven't been home in forever. I'm not sure how much more dedication you can spare."

Hop couldn't answer for a few moments through his yawn. "I take off like an hour every day to talk to you," he said. "I just don't want to let Sonia and Lee and you and everyone else down."

Gloria felt herself smiling at Hop's determination, but she did wish he would take better care of himself.

"I promise no one will be disappointed if you took the time to actually sleep, Hop. Please go home tonight, or I'll be there first thing tomorrow to drag you out of that lab myself." Gloria leaned back against the door and closed her eyes. She'd had a glass of punch herself, and the room seemed to be spinning a little bit.

She opened her eyes after a few uncharacteristically silent moments (or maybe minutes--time was just a concept in her current state) from Hop and found him to be staring at her through the phone. Gloria was definitely tipsy, because she let herself stare back.

A muffled countdown was getting louder from the other room. "10! 9! 8! 7!"

Hop leaned back to stretch, and when he settled again, he propped his chin up on a hand and smiled at her.

"6! 5! 4! 3!"

If she was being honest, Gloria could spend the rest of her life just looking at Hop. She wished she could say this was a new thought for her, but it wasn't.

"2! 1!" The partygoers finished counting, and another room-shaking cheer exploded outside. "Happy New Year!"

Gloria heard glasses clinking and feet shuffling, but she felt like she was in another, quieter world. "Happy New Year, Hop," she said, almost whispering.

"Happy New Year, Gloria."

...

When Gloria called Hop, she was relieved to see he was at home, even if he was still reading papers at his desk. He had clearly been working for hours without moving, because it was almost pitch black in his room.

"Hop, you need to turn on a light," Gloria said. She really needed to learn to say "hi" first before scolding.

Hop looked around himself for what was probably the first time in ages. "Oh, you're right," he mumbled and shuffled over to hit the overhead light switch. She watched him stretch and pop his joints before sitting back down. "Where are you?" he asked. "And your hair's different."

Gloria had her hair back in a messy bun, the style every other girl on the Isle of Armor wore. She was still wearing her dojo uniform even though it was almost bedtime. For some reason, Gloria was really fond of the outfit.

She stood back from the Rotom phone to model it for Hop, who nodded approvingly, like he had any grasp of what was going on.

"I'm on the Isle of Armor at the Master Dojo," Gloria said, sitting back down on her cot. All the dojo students slept on the floor. "I met some kid at the train station who was supposed to study here, but he backed out, and there was kind of a case of mistaken identity, but...yeah," she finished lamely.

Hop nodded at her senseless explanation. "I'm familiar with the dojo," he said, surprising her. "Lee trained there a few years ago. I don't think he ever completed it, though."

Gloria was fighting to wrench off her tennis shoes and almost fell off the cot. She heard Hop chuckle on the other side of the line.

"I actually like it a lot here," she said when the shoes were safely kicked across the room. "The island is massive, and there's all these Dynamax Pokémon. There is one girl here who's really testing my patience, though."

It was almost a month after the New Year's party, but it was not so long that Gloria could pretend to have forgotten her resolution. Being kind to Klara was proving to be a challenge.

"Is someone messing with you?" Hop asked. He was fumbling around with the papers coating his desk, apparently trying to put them in some sort of order. "Surely they know you could beat them into the dirt."

"Yeah, and I already did," Gloria agreed. "This girl, her name is Klara, was the one who greeted me when I got off the train. Get this--she only had two Pokémon on her team when we battled, and I knocked them both out in one hit. Then she still acted like it was just luck that I won!" 

Gloria could feel her face getting flushed with rage for the umpteenth time. Thankfully, she had held it together through the day's countless interactions with Klara.

"Sounds like Bede to me," Hop said. He couldn't fight the resentment that tinged his voice. Gloria could see the resemblance in their relationships. 

"Then she basically told me to just leave the island or else," Gloria explained. Hop raised his eyebrows at her. "So obviously I had to join the dojo then. Everyone else was super nice, and they gave me this uniform, which set Klara off immediately. Apparently she didn't even have a uniform yet, and she's been here for months!" Gloria's tone was smug, which made her feel slightly shameful, but Hop nodded agreeably. He was listening but still arranging his papers into neat stacks.

"But when the dojo master, this old guy named Mustard, went to hand Klara a uniform, these three ninja Slowpoke"--Hop looked up to show her a doubtful expression--"no, I'm serious, these Slowpoke moved like the wind, Hop! They snatched the uniform out of her arms, even took the time to divide it between themselves, and ran out of the dojo!"

Hop finished wrapping rubber bands around his assorted files. "Okay, Glo, if you say so. Are you sure they're not sneaking you drugs? Hallucinogens, maybe?"

Gloria hesitated long enough for him to nod sagely. "There was a weird soup, but I'm pretty confident I didn't make this up. Anyway! Mustard turned it into this whole test thingy, and long story short, I had to ride my bike through this swampy field, chasing after three star track runners of Slowpoke that Mustard had specially trained, to get a uniform back for this girl who already hates me."

Hop's phone was following him to the small bathroom just outside his room, and he closed the door behind him. He was preparing a toothbrush when Gloria paused in her story.

"Your fever dream does paint a nice picture in my head," Hop said. "Is there more? I'm too tired to talk, but I can listen." He started brushing his teeth while Gloria tried to articulate the rest of her day.

"After I gave Klara her uniform, we immediately had to start another trial, which was to find some weird mushrooms"--Hot shot her a pointed look, which she waved off--"not those kind of mushrooms, I mean Max Mushrooms! This place is massive, so everyone got super lost, including me on like twelve separate occasions. I eventually found the right cave and a cluster of mushrooms, when guess who comes running up?"

"Klara," Hop responded through a mouth full of foam. 

"Yes, Klara, and she tried to say she saw the mushrooms first! My blood was boiling at this point, but of course I just happened to remember in that moment how I swore I'd be nicer to people..."

Hop stopped mid-brush. "Gloria, do not tell me you gave her those mushrooms. You found them fair and square!"

Gloria grimaced. "I know, but I told her she could have them if she really wanted them. But that just pissed her off! So she ended up challenging me to a battle, which she lost, of course, because now she only had three Pokémon, and she stormed off."

Hop finished brushing his teeth and shot her a smile. "That's my Champion," he said encouragingly.

"Well, she ended up finding more Max Mushrooms somewhere, and they used them for the soup instead of mine, but it's fine!" Gloria had ended up using her own mushrooms in a soup for her Copperajah to Gigantamax, but still, what was wrong with her mushrooms? So weird.

Gloria fell silent for a moment as Hop suddenly pulled his shirt off to change into another one. He noticed her go quiet and gave the phone a questioning look, so Gloria fought to find something to say.

"So, uh, oh yeah! After that, Klara and I were the only ones to finish the second trial, and our third trial was to battle each other. Klara runs out onto the field and tells me to take my time, so I ended up talking to Mustard's kid for a second because he was looking for some Watts to build this weird machine that recycles objects. The kid's really cool actually. And the machine looks like a Cramorant."

"I love Cramorants," Hop said dreamily, no doubt thinking about all the times his Cramorant had hit Gloria's Pokémon in the face with a fish it had dived up.

"Really? I'm not a fan," Gloria replied, a note of irritability in her voice. Hop laughed at her threatening tone. "Anyway, we get out on the field and start the battle, and my Ninetales immediately gets badly poisoned."

Hop looked up from his sink, where he was splashing his face with water. Gloria's eyes followed a drop from his bangs as it traced a path to his chin. "How did that happen?"

"Klara had spread toxic spikes all over the field before I got there! I mean, it didn't really matter, because Ninetales still took care of her entire team, but still."

"Is she a Poison-type trainer?" Hop interjected. He was toweling off his face now and rubbed it through his hair. "I'm surprised you beat her entire team without a type advantage."

Hop paused for a second, then rolled his eyes. "I forgot that thing knows Extrasensory. I'm starting to feel bad for this Klara girl, ya know. She clearly has terrible taste in rivals."

Gloria realized she should be getting ready for bed, too, and got up off the cot (with some difficulty--she'd had a lot of "training" today) in search of a bathroom. Everyone else in the dojo was passed out in the main room, but she had been given her own room for the night. The perks of being Champion, she guessed. Or the master's favorite.

She put a finger to her lips to signal Hop to be quiet. He was back in his hallway, and then in his bedroom. Her screen went dark as he turned off the light and crawled into bed.

Gloria was struck by the slight intimacy of the situation but ignored it in favor of finding the bathroom.

When she finally did, she released a deep breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Hop chuckled.

"Okay, first of all, I resent that about being a bad rival," Gloria said. "And I think you'll agree with me when I tell you what happened next."

"What happened next?" Hop asked. The light of his Rotom phone's screen bathed him in an unnatural blue glow, but he still looked nice. It was infuriating.

Gloria set her bag on the floor and dug through it, looking for her cosmetics bag. It had everything she needed at the moment. 

"Klara asked me not to tell Mustard she'd cheated. And of course I wanted to tell him, but..." She pushed aside an entire tree's worth of berries in search of the small bag with her toothbrush and makeup removing wipes. 

"You have to kill her with kindness," Hop finished.

"Yeah," Gloria said. "Yes!" She held up the makeup bag in triumph and removed a wipe to scrub her face with. "Okay, but she said all of this right in front of Mustard, who heard her, and is making her take care of all the Pokémon with no help for like six months."

"That sucks," Hop said. "But so does she, it sounds like. It also kind of sounds like you ruined this girl's entire life in a single day."

Gloria was dabbing moisturizer across her cheeks, face scrunched up in concentration. "Yes, she's truly terrible, Hop. She says things like 'driving you Kla-razy' unironically. Also, she's like thirty-something, and she's picking fights with a seventeen-year-old. It's far from my fault." 

She could hear Hop quietly laughing at the pun. Of course he would find such an awful pun funny. She was smiling, too, though, as she started brushing her teeth. 

Hop started humming across the phone as he waited for her to finish. She worried about how little he was talking, but Gloria didn't mind compensating. It wasn't often that Hop wasn't going on endlessly about something.

Gloria debated flossing but decided she was too tired. Hop was quiet as she walked them both down the dark hall. Gloria crawled onto her small cot (still in her dojo uniform, she acknowledged) and clapped her hands--the lights shut off with a click.

"Whoa, that was cool," Hop said softly.

"Yeah, I know, right?" she whispered. "Anyway, tomorrow I get some surprise final challenge. I think I'm pretty close to finishing my training here. Then I can come visit Wedgehurst sometime and see you."

"We'll see each other sooner than you think," Hop said. Gloria snuggled into her travel pillow, and she flipped onto her side. The Rotom phone swiveled to capture her face, and she saw Hop in the same position, watching her. "I'm proud of you, Gloria."

Gloria hoped her blush didn't show up well in the dark. She grinned back at Hop. "You're amazing," she said in response.

"Good night, Gloria."

"Good night, Hop."

**Author's Note:**

> I can't apologize enough for how distinctly American my writing is


End file.
